Mr Mom
by redheadturkey
Summary: A look at a very nontraditional family from the eyes of one of the children. Rude/Reno, Mpreg implied.
1. Chapter 1

Mr

Mr. Mom

By Rennan Matthew Tarshil

It's funny, in a way. People ask me about my parents, most of all they ask about my mom, and a lot of times I'm just not sure how to explain it in a way that anyone who doesn't know us would get. People pass us in the grocery store, see us at the gas station, and I have had more than one ask how "my dad" is doing. Then I tell them the tall, slender redhead who is loading the bags into the SUV or putting gas in the gas tank is not my dad but my MOM, and that is when the jaws start dropping.

Yes, that's right folks. Rennan Matthew Tarshil has a MAN for a mother. I know, kinda shocking, isn't it? I wouldn't believe it either if I didn't know it for a fact. And if I hadn't seen the very hole I was shoved out of on an occasion or two, but no, we won't go there, really. NO self respecting teenage boy likes to admit he's seen his momma's vagina, or that he's seen momma naked, either. What's even more embarrassing is when Momma's dick is bigger than yours. Welcome to the world of being the Hermaphrodite Turk's kid.

What's it like, you ask? It has its advantages, as well as its disadvantages. The main advantage being that Mom knows the male body and perspective well enough NOT to act shocked or disappointed when he discovers that yes, my girlfriend and I do INDEED have sex. Matter of fact, he normally makes sure I'm well supplied with condoms and warns me to make sure I use one every time. I remember the time I came home and began complaining about Amelia's father, at which point Mom piped up, and told me something I have not forgotten to this day. "Son, it's not the girl's father you should be afraid of, but the girl's MOTHER." THAT is something which Mom has proven to be very true.

My other very clear memory of just how true that is was the day Rina came home crying after school. The story that came from her, about how her boyfriend had broken up with her because she refused to have sex with him, had of course stirred Dad to a nice fine rage, and the crimson flush that spread across the tanned face would have terrified the strongest men, really. But Dad can be reasoned with, normally. Mom on the other hand. . .when he goes off it's very difficult to talk him down. There was not even a word said as he yanked his emr up from the counter and marched next door, and I could see him trembling with anger when he did. To this day I'm still not sure what he said to the boy, but later that evening, Steve came over to the house with roses and APOLOGIZED to my sister.

There have of course been the nights that one or the other has come home bloodied, alone, and those are the nights that Rina and I just don't ask, because we both know that it means a mission went bad and that one of them was injured badly enough to need medical attention. Rina of course always fears the day Mom or Dad will come home alone and it will because the other has been killed. I want to reassure her Mom and Dad are both pretty smart, that they know how to protect themselves, but how sure can we be of that really? The world is uncertain, and one day or another death comes for all of us, whether we want it to or not. Rina and I just have to hold that fact closer to our hearts is all.

Of course, I always pray Mom will end up pregnant again, because for that amount of time at least he is out from under Death's fell shadow because he would not be allowed field duty during that period of time. For nine months, there is no pall of fear over our hearts, we relax and laugh and act as a family in ways we normally don't any other time, and we're happy that way. Not that we begrudge the life our parents have chosen for themselves, as we know they would not be happy without being in the thick of things. It's how they're wired.

Now, as I watch him sleeping in Dad's arms, one eye swollen closed where he'd been hit in the face by a bottle while breaking up a riot downtown, various other cuts and bruises and minor injuries littered over the pale and slender form, I realize something. Despite how our family is frowned upon, despite how we buck tradition, I would not have it any other way.


	2. Chapter 2

Mr

Mr. Mom II: Birth

It's a strange feeling, sitting outside a hospital room while the groans and grunts of a laboring mother come from the other side of the door. I look up as Rennan comes down the hall with another glass of ice chips in his hand, and I smile at him, just a little shyly. I know one day I will be doing this, and it's strange, coming from the perspective of a teenage girl knowing that the one who will be bringing my baby brother into this world in just a few short hours is the same one that TOOK so many lives when he dropped the plate on Sector Seven 15 years ago. Yes, that's right, he. What, are you really that surprised? My name is Rina Marie Tarshil, and Reno of the Turks is my mother.

Some people don't understand what it's like to have Turks for parents really in the first place, and to have been born of a man. . . well that adds a bit more of a twist really to it. I remember the looks Mom got in the grocery store while carrying this newest baby, the people would STARE at him, but he seemed to just glide through it all with a smile on his face the whole way. Of course, that's just his way, to spit in the face of adversity as it comes his way. Mom didn't have the kind of childhood that left him a choice.

Grandma was young when she had Mom, wasn't entirely sure what she was doing. She was 16 at that point, and had gotten involved with Garndpa Tarshil, which also wasn't all that smart, from what Grandma has told me. Grandma did her best to protect him, of course, because she's that way, but it still was a difficult childhood, and Mom ran from home when he was 15. Some people claim Mom's childhood messed him up, but in my opinion it made him stronger. Now, I see Grandma Tarshil sitting on the other side of the bed encouraging Mom, and it just makes me smile.

Then, it seemed as if a wave of POWER passed over Mom, his eyes focusing inward, from the look of it, face setting into an expression of sheer determination as that slender chest and bulging belly HEAVED, legs tensing, power and strength obvious in every line of his body. It was a natural wonder, really, something I had never expected to witness in quite that way, one human being bringing another into the world after having nurtured it for months. It was a thing of power and beauty, and I will never forget it. The strong legs, one I knew had the kicking power of a MULE, were lifted to his chest, and the slender hips flexed. I always wondered how he managed it, shoving something so big as a full term baby out of that little pelvis, and I'm now getting my answer.

I know it's more difficult than it would be for one who had been born fully female, as though he was one of those VERY lucky few who were born as he was not only to have the ability to conceive and bear, but to have the correct pelvic shape to be able to do so naturally, everything was SMALLER, more slender, through there. but Mom had made it almost look effortless as the tiny head slid free, Mom's trademark red down on top of the baby's dark skinned scalp, brown eyes sliding open as the rest of the tiny babe came popping out like a cork with one last determined push.

I knew he had to be exhausted, the labor itself had been nearly 18 hours, and I had had to leave because the dress fitting for my wedding had been earlier that day, I was just glad not to have missed the birth itself. But instead of collapsing back into the bed as I would have expected, he held out his arms for his baby. "It's a boy. . .no wait. . ." the words of confusion from the doctor drew a smile, then a bit of a chuckle from Mom. "He ain't a boy or a girl really, just like Momma he's got th'best of both worlds, an' it ain't always a bad thing. Now let me hold m'baby, we c'n figure it out later."

Since the baby had more masculine than feminine traits, like Mom, he'd chosen a male name. Renji Alexander. I knew there would be decisions being foisted on Mom soon enough about what to do with Renji, but I suspected I knew what he would choose. He would allow Renji to grow up, just as he was, and let him make the decision whether to remain that way or whether to be one or the other once he was old enough to decide for himself. After all, it is only the right thing to do, right?


	3. Chapter 3

Pacing, Dad was pacing again, the way he always does when Mom is out on a mission alone

Pacing, Dad was pacing again, the way he always does when Mom is out on a mission alone. He was holding Renji in his arms, hoping the motion would soothe the baby's fretful state, as it usually did. But there seemed to be a strange pall over the house, one that had everyone, the three month old infant included, on EDGE. I wanted to ask Dad what was wrong, but I think all of us knew, really. This felt different than the typical wait for Mom to walk back in the door, probably bloodied and exhausted. This felt. . .almost as if Mom wasn't COMING home. I draped an arm over Dad's broad shoulder, urging him to set the baby down and get some sleep, as he did after all have an early shift in the morning. "Come on, Dad, it's almost midnight, I know you're tired. I also know you don't want to be sleeping when Mom comes home, but you need the rest. I promise I'll wake you either when Mom comes in, or when someone calls."

The bald head nodded, and Dad headed back into the room, settling Renji down into the crib. The baby finally settled into sleep, being too tired really to stay awake. I watched him sleep for a while, Rennan standing next to me with an arm draped over my shoulder as mine had been over Dad's. "You shouldn't lie to him you know." My brother's voice was a bare rumble in my ear as if he was trying to avoid waking Dad, which was actually pretty likely. Of the two of us, Rennan had always been the one who had seen to Dad's physical needs, whereas I had always been the one more worried about his emotional ones. I guess that really highlights the differences in the way women and men are wired.

The call finally came in sometime around two AM, and it was not Tseng, but Uncle Rufus, which really surprised me. Uncle Rufus almost never calls personally for anything, he normally has either Tseng or Elena or one of the secretaries cal us for things. Matter of fact, the last time any of us had seen or talked to him had been almost six months ago when he'd thrown Mom's baby shower for Renji. "Uncle Rufus? What's going on?" I asked the question quietly, even though I was pretty sure I already knew. The crack in the voice over the phone confirmed it even before he said it.

The mission Mom had been sent on had been to break up a prostitution ring, something Elena would have been sent on, but she was pregnant and on desk duty when the mission had come up, she and Tseng expecting their first. Thus, the most feminine looking of those remaining had gotten chosen for it, and Mom despite grumbling about not being a woman just because he happened to have a cunt had taken it, because it was of course his job, whether he liked it or not. The words that came from Rufus shocked me, but at the same time I really was not as surprised as I tried to let on.

We'd both, Rennan and I, known that either Mom or Dad being killed on a mission was a distinct possibility, though we had hoped it wouldn't happen. Now, as Rufus told me what had happened, I had to close my eyes against the sudden sharp pang in my chest. "I am so very sorry, Rina. Despite our best efforts to keep his identity from being discovered, he was caught. I know I do not have to tell you and Rennan that it was a possibility, you both knew it already. Death is and always has been a possibility for both of your parents. I will send the photos of the scene over your father's phone, and when he wakes up would you tell him please that I need him to come and claim the body and begin the funeral arrangements?" Uncle Rufus' voice cracked again, as If he was on the verge of tears, and he probably was.

"Of course,Uncle Rufus. Can you tell me how it happened?" My voice was much calmer really than it should be, but it was because I was locking it down and away, not wanting to lose my composure, as someone had to stay calm and composed here, because for everyone to lose it at a time like this would only make the situation even more difficult. As he explained how Mom had been basically been raped into unconsciousness and then beaten until his brain had swollen so badly it was oozing into his spine, I winced, able to hear the screams, see the terror in the green eyes. Uncle Rufus had of course used very dry, spare descriptions, but I knew how badly missions could go, having SEEN it, and what he did not say, my mind could supply.

I could not be sure what would happen from here, but I knew we would get through it. It was what Mom would want, and I knew it.


	4. Chapter 4

It hasn't been easy for me to do this with their mother gone

It hasn't been easy for me to do this with their mother gone. They don't LISTEN to me as they did Reno, who always seemed to have the easiest of touches with all three of them, but Renji over the years seems to have taken it the hardest. Rina and Rennan, they get it, they understand, and I know they do the best they can to help. Then I hear the music from Renji's room and my own grief, hidden for the past five years, never released, never allowed to come to flower so it could heal, suddenly rises to the surface and my eyes fill.

_I can take the rain on the roof of this empty house that don't bother me. _

_I can take a few tears now and then and just ;et 'em out. _

_I'm not afraid to cry every once in a while even though_

_Goin' on with you gone still upsets me. _

_There are days every now and again I pretend I'm ok_

_But that's not what gets me. _

It was true. What had hurt the most had been all of the words I had locked away inside myself, the ones I had never spoken, even though I knew Reno KNEW, there had been no way for him NOT to know, I had never been able to bring myself to say them, and now I would never have the chance, and it was tearing me apart inside in ways I had never imagined possible. The morning he had left for that mission, the one that had left an entire family devastated, I had come SO close to speaking them. Maybe somewhere, deep inside, I had known, but they had stuck to the roof of my mouth and would not come out.

_What hurts the most is being so close_

_Having so much to say, watching you walk away_

_Never knowing, what could have been. _

_Not seeing that loving you is what I was trying to do. _

I had SLAPPED him that morning, I had been so angry, not wanting him to take that assignment, and though I knew he had no choice, I had felt this dark terror deep inside. I had not wanted to lose him, I loved him entirely too much. He'd gone into work with that bruise on his face, and looking at that mark marring his perfect features when I'd gone to claim his body was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I don't think to this day that the children knew what happened then, and I am not going to tell them. They saw only the deep good bye kiss that we had shared before he walked out the door, those words I had wanted so badly to speak still left unsaid.

Now, my youngest child, little Renji, the one who had always been his mother's favorite, comes out to me and wraps his arms around my shoulders, the seven year old whispering soft words of encouragement to me as he tries to lift me out of the mourning that had been so long in finally coming.

"It'll be ok, Daddy. . .Mommy's watching over us, right? Forever and ever, that was what you said. He wouldn't wanna see you hurting like this. So please, stop crying now."

Delicate, long and slender fingers wipe the tears from my face and I'm suddenly so very grateful to have had Renji take after his mother in more than his bent gender. He's the one that's so like Reno it's like having a ghostly shadow of him living within that young body, so close it HURTS almost but that's ok. I'm more proud of him than I have ever in my life been.

"Yeah, you're right. He wouldn't want that." And as I lifted Renji up into my arms I looked up. "I love you babe, forever. Thank you for what you gave me."


End file.
